I’m reading Peter Mayle’s ‘a good year’ upon a suggestion from Vero’s sister Anne-Marie and it deals with wine and vineyards. An amusing aspect of the book is how wine connoisseurs try their best to describe the taste of a certain wine in ludicrous talk such as comparing it to music or a favourite action scene of a movie.
I am also reading a LOT of reviews of the new Beatles remasters which are coming out in a few weeks. I am reading how Paul’s bass sounded full and daring or how Harrison’s guitar work squealed with delight.
Is it worth trying to describe music in words?
I have hit a wall when trying to describe how I feel about albums or concerts I’ve been to. It’s virtually impossible to put an emotion into words. Perhaps that’s what makes a good writer a great writer. Their ability to describe emotions.
However, I cringe at every article about the Beatles remasters in which the author is writing about the emotion that Ringo’s bass drum evokes. I can understand if you want to tell us that the songs sound more cleaner and the instruments are more defined…but I feel bad for the poor souls tasked with writing how the remasters SOUND. I hope someone just puts up a couple of examples and simply writes “Hear for yourself.”
So with that, I shall try my darnedest to put the most adjectives I can when describing the soaring guitar solo I heard Mike McCready play last week, or the machine gun fire of Billy Corgan’s guitar attack in his song ‘United States’. But I’ll laugh at myself every time after I write stuff like that. I can’t take myself seriously!
Perhaps that is why I simply stick to classic Palmer adjective…BEST (insert whatever I am talking about) EVER.
Yesterday evening I stumbled on an excellent deal at Best Buy which managed to save me $35 off of the Beatles box sets that are coming out in a few weeks! These boxsets are not cheap in any way so I will take any savings I can find! Essentially, they have a ‘late summer night’ sale on right now (until 10AM Wednesday morning I believe) where you can get $10 off of an order up to $250 (which would be the Stereo Box Set) and $25 off of anything over $250 (which would be the Mono box set). Beatles fans (or those wanting a large item!), get in there now!
After work yesterday I headed over to Alex’s place to help him move. Luckily my body has been through a warm up session the night before by helping Michael move a few items. It was quite a hot day and I think I started to feel perspiration on the forehead as soon as we lifted the empty cardboard TV box! Alex and Holly managed to get a lot of work done in the past month and all that was left were large items that we filled into the truck. James and Matt showed up later on, as well as Mike G who showed up just as we loaded the last box (but was instrumental in the move at the new place). Alex and I were having a laugh at some of the situations we ended up in while moving large items which required tricky maneuvering. Unfortunately the four of us had no real idea how he got the table saw in his basement without taking it apart so Matt took it apart and we managed to finally get it out of the house.
One U-Haul truckload later (yay! Didn’t see that happening), we headed to their new house. Mike and I took a wrong turn at one point and ended up in some swank area of town. We then realized this couldn’t be the place so we continued on and found the real spot. They live in a great little neighbourhood south of Ottawa which reminds me of home. It reminds me so much of home that I am officially looking for a house like theirs. I loved the fact that they had a double garage with an additional work area in the back with a fire stove. That’s a real man’s area if I’ve ever seen one! Heck, the place even has a chicken coop!
The move went quite quickly after that and we ended the night with some great pizza and beer (is this a Canadian moving tradition or is this felt around the world?). The house is in renovation mode with all the walls torn out in the basement as well as the lack of a shower, but it shall come along. It’s a great house and I’m sure will see a lot of fun times in it in the future!
After work I headed over to Mike’s new pad on Bay Street…right in the heart of Ottawa. I was amazed at how close it was to my work and immediately became jealous. Imagine the concept of being able to walk to work, let alone bike it.
I thoroughly enjoyed the tour of his place…I love the brick walls in the house as well as some vintage looking items within it. Well chosen Michael, well chosen.
We headed home where we proceeded to have an impromptu nap and then I watched a bit of Mad Men Season 2 before Mike asked for my help downstairs. We were going to make a load to bring to the apartment. Unfortunately, he started me off with the heaviest item in the world. I was hoping to work my way into it! In hindsight, I’m glad I helped him move a few things as I am helping Holly and Alex move some large items on Tuesday.
After loading up the vehicles, we headed to his apartment around 8PM where we encountered some construction on the Queensway. After that hurdle, it was quite fast to unload our vehicles and his apartment is now starting to take shape. He has a nice lower level of the place which will most likely end up being his own pad. He also bought these amazing lamps from Ikea that put off a lot more light than I would have thought they would!
All in all, the move is happening quite quickly and it is with sadness to see him leave but am also happy that he upgraded in a sense. He is excited to start biking to work and experience the downtown living to its fullest.
I just got off the phone with Mom and realized that I never wished them a happy anniversary. 34 years is a long time to put up with Dad. Give this woman a medal.
The next morning, Carrie and I wake up, chat with Nanny, Aunt Dinah and Uncle Richard and figure out things that will happen for the rest of the day. Aunt Dinah and Uncle Richard are gracious enough to lend me both their GPS unit as well as their cell phone for my trip downtown Toronto. I have realized that I am going to look into getting a pay as you go cell phone. It’s quite handy in the circumstances like this where I am heading downtown Toronto and need to meet up with some friends but they have no way in getting in touch with me.
We headed off around 11AM so that I could drop Carrie off at her cousin Jon’s place as they were heading out to a wedding. Fast fact: Did you know that Carrie has lived with 43 different people in her life? We figured that out on the way down. I know you are all intrigued by that fact. How many people have YOU lived with in your life?
I then headed down to Queen’s Quay street (which is pronounced Queens’ Key which posed a problem when I was inputting it into the GPS Unit and did not know that fact. Where the heck did that pronunciation ever come from?) where I was parking my car near Dana’s place. Dana was the lucky winner of joining me for the Pearl Jam concert as both Vero and Mike were unable to come along! I had never been down to Queen’s Quay before but it is quite the nice spot to live as it is right next to the Rogers Center as well as the lake.
After parking the car (for $30 for two days), I walked around downtown in search of a CIBC machine as I had zero cash. I did manage to leave Samantha’s phone number back in the car so I had to hoof it back there in search of it. I did phone Samantha who was up with her friend Kelly to see the concert as well. It’s nice to see that Kapuskasing had a good turn out at the concert!
After meandering around downtown (and stumbling into an excellent CBC Museum which had Mr. Dress-up and Friendly Giant artifacts), I took a nap in Union Station waiting for Sam and Kelly. When I woke up, they phoned and said they were at the station and we decided to head to Jack Astor’s for a little food and drink. We had quite the exuberant waitress!
We then hoofed it down Queens Quay but gave up that mission soon enough and hopped onto a streetcar whose name is probably not Desire, but Awesome as Luke the driver let us get on and pay whatever we wanted as well as let us know where to get off to get to Ontario Place. What a swell guy. Please note that it always helps to be the only guy amongst two beautiful ladies and let them get on first. I’m pretty sure the ‘pay whatever you want’ did not apply to me.
We showed up to Ontario Place and I had visions of winning some sweet seats in Row 1 (as the Ten Club (Pearl Jam’s fan club) has a random lottery for those who purchase tickets via the Ten Club. Alas, it was not meant to be but I got some excellent seats in Section 203 along with a gazillion other fans.
We walked around Ontario Place for a bit, munching on some ice cream and then getting a beer. I had to go back outside to give Dana her ticket but it turns out that she was not outside Ontario Place but at the entrance of the CNE (which was celebrating it’s 175th birthday and was a zoo) so I went back in to the beer garden while waiting for her to show up. I finally found her and we celebrated the fact that Kapuskasing had a few Pearl Jam fans anxious to see the show.
When we hit up the merchandise booth, I must say I was disappointed by most of the choices. I did end up getting a ‘Toronto’ themed tour shirt but I have heard that there is another special one with a vintage Toronto Maple Leafs look to it that I would have rather have. I will scour Ebay for it in the future. I also noticed that the poster I ordered for $42 was selling for $30. I had heard through the years that these posters sell out fast so I decided to order it from the site (another Ten Club perk) but peace of mind came at a price of twelve extra dollars!
An amazing event happened after Sam and Kelly were playing Guitar Hero at the Xbox 360 booth. The guy working there mentioned that we can text a number to see if we win upgraded seats. Dana didn’t win, Kelly didn’t win, but Samantha DID WIN! Incredible! They ran off into the night with the Xbox guy and we figured we would see them later. A great part of this story is the fact that Samantha didn’t have a proper ticket stub (she printed the tickets off) as a memento but now she did!
After snagging a beer and some pizza, Dana and I found our seats in Section 203 and settled in for Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. I was quite excited to see them as I am a big fan. I was also hoping to catch Eddie Vedder play an acoustic number or two before the opening act as he usually does.
Sure enough, around 7:30PM he hits the stage! People go wild. However, there was a little special something planned for the night. He explained that The Pharmacists were backstage ready to come up, but Ted Leo was unfortunately stuck in the States due to some border crossing issues. Eddie then proceeded to play two Neil Young covers…Sugar Mountain and The Needle and the Damage Done! He then invited Mike McCready up to play a few more tunes…one song was about his daughter and another one I didn’t recognize. Stone Gossard did come out and play a Johnny Thunders tune, which I knew from Duff McKagan’s version on The Spaghetti Incident?! Then Jeff Ament and Eddie came out for some Bee Girl. The Pharmacists then took the stage and played a few tracks and had Eddie and Mike come back out to play Search and Destroy. Excellent! Mike was shredding away during that song. It was blistering.
Halfway through the opening set we managed to find Samantha and Kelly. They were sitting more in the center of the amphitheater and a few rows behind us. We joined them in the Xbox area and manged to get a waitress! Excellent! Dana and I then decided to scoot over to the seats in the Ottawa Sun area as there was no one there as the Xbox one filled up quickly. In the end, this paid off in spades as we got a better view of the stage and a waitress for the rest of the night! People did up in the box but just assumed we were invited there was well so they all stood around with us rocking out! I especially enjoyed this one woman’s (Anne) company as she knew all the words to the songs as well so we rocked out together for the most part. That’s what I love about Pearl Jam fans….they are just there to have a good time.
After the opening set, the band came back out around 9PM and tore apart all known boundaries of awesomeness and opened with ‘Of The Girl’ which is a rare one indeed. The setlist for the night was Yield Album heavy which is fine by me. Off that album we got Brain of J, Given to Fly, Faithful and Do The Evolution.
Some highlights:
– The Fixer and Got Some (from the upcoming album) were excellent. I also think the fans really enjoy The Fixer.
– The fans in Toronto are rabid and they didn’t let up for a moment. The band were really enjoying themselves.
– Off He Goes was a real treat!
– Mike McCready was on fire that night…1/2 Full, Black, Alive, Porch…come on….it was incredible. Sometimes I would look at the video screens and they would be on Mike and we would be lost in his own world rocking out.
– Lukin/Not For You was the highlight of the night. THIS IS NOT FOR YOU!
– Porch followed by Rocking in the Free World left us in awe. I wasn’t disappointed at all to not hear Yellow Ledbetter ending off the night. Although I heard that it was on the setlist.
– Eddie going out into the crowd!
– Eddie falling on his ass during Even Flow
I am hoping that I may see some video footage of Dana and I rocking out during the last song as the guy in front of us was taking an extended video of the entire crowd. I did give him my email address so you never know. However, I am going to bank on him NOT sending me the footage as I also noticed that at one point he asked his girlfriend to flash him and I was behind her at the time so I didn’t get a look at what happened but she did do something that put a smile on his face! So the odds of me getting that footage are slim to none!
All in all, seeing Pearl Jam from 7:30PM – 11:30PM with a little break in between was more than I could ask for and it was a grand night indeed. I can’t even begin to say how many thumbs up this concert deserved. In the future I know I am going to follow Pearl jam to each concert for an entire tour. They put on the best show on the planet. I’m glad that we got to have a taste of it on Friday night.
Thanks to Samantha and Kelly for hanging out with me on Friday as well as Dana coming along for the ride during the evening and hosting me for the night after the concert!
Setlist:
1. EV – Sugar Mountain
2. EV – Needle and the Damage Done
3. MM – acoustic song
4. MM – acoustic song
5. SG – You Can’t Put Your Arms Around a Memory (Johnny Thunder cover)
6. EV and JA – Bee Girl
7. Pharmacists – Hybrid Moments
8. Pharmacists – Lions Den (French Toast)
9. Pharmacists – Treble In Trouble
10. Pharmacists – Blitzkrieg Bop
11. Pharmacists – Search And Destroy (Iggy Pop) (w/Ed Ved and Mike McCready)
Set List: Of The Girl, Corduroy, Severed Hand, Why Go, Brain Of J, I Am Mine, The Fixer, Given To Fly, Off He Goes, Even Flow, Unemployable, Faithful, Down, Got Some, 1/2 Full, Lukin, Not For You/(Modern Girl – Sleater Kinney), Do The Evolution
1st encore: Inside Job, Wishlist, Black, Alive
2nd encore: Small Town, Wasted Reprise, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Porch, Rockin’ In The Free World
Carrie and I left Ottawa around 6 to get into Ajax for 10PM. All was going well…we had a fill of veggies along the way and the highway was a haven of great driving conditions.
We pulled into Kingston to grab a bite to eat at Harvey’s and this incredible pain emerged from my back and I couldn’t figure out what the heck was going on. It was quite uncomfortable. We managed to finish our meal and head back out on the road but alas, this pain would not go away. It was also coupled with some bad stomach pains (har har at all the jokes that will come my way about eating at Arby’s!).
Around Belleville we start seeing these extreme flashes of lightning in the distance that just won’t stop. I am thinking this is an intense display of heat lightning! I turn on the radio on a whim and find out that we are in the middle of a tornado watch and everyone is asked to seek shelter!
Now, growing up in Northern Ontario, I can most assuredly tell you that I have never encountered a tornado before, nor any warnings about said tornado. Considering the traffic was still moving along and there was no rain in sight, we decided to consult the number one Tornado expert in the world, Aunt Dinah. She did let us know that the tornado had hit Vaughn earlier in the evening and that it may be heading our way. However, it looked like we would be on the edge of the storm system as it was heading North. Please note that Aunt Dinah did mention the next day that she didn’t want to tell us that we should be alright in case something should actually happen to us! That was some smart thinking.
Coupled with the fact that we were freaking out about not even being able to see if a tornado was coming our way in the middle of the night on the 401 and Aunt Dinah’s expert opinion, we pulled off the 401 into Belleville and stopped over at a McDonald’s for a rest stop and then decided to go for a beer at Applebee’s and figure things out.
We enter Applebee’s and say “We are here seeking shelter from the storm! Can you help us?” Of course, this didn’t make any sense to the waitress who had been working all day long and had not been watching a) the weather network b) the news and c) any form of communication that involved the mention of the tornadoes. We were quickly known as the ‘people from Ottawa who have stopped in because of tornado warnings”. Our waiter Brad (who was excellent) chatted about how we should hug a toilet if the tornado hit as there was no basement in which Carrie replied “I’ve hugged a few toilets in my day!”
Brad came back after taking our orders with exciting news…our beers were only $2.50 after 9PM! Score! He was so excited about it that he came back to tell us before grabbing the beers. Later on when he was settling up the bill because he was heading home he gave us the tornado special and only charged us $2 for a pint of beer. How did we end up in this Xanadu? By the way, if Brad’s boss ends up reading this, he charged us $2.50 a pint.
We took a seat at the bar after awhile so we could take a look at the Weather Network. Videos of tornadoes and destruction in Vaughan were the mainstay for the next few hours. Unfortunately there was horrible word that a teenager had perished around Durham (Durrrrrm for all you locals). Later on in the night, a waitress said that a tornado had hit Cobourg. The storm had picked up outside after 1.5 hours of waiting and at one point the power flickered and the satellite feed kept going in and out.
During this time, I was still having this crazy back pains as well as stomach pains and it wasn’t anything usual. In the end (gross alert), I vomited to see if that would fix the problem and in the end, it did get rid of the stomach pains and I would say 15 minutes later while in the car ride to Ajax, my back pain was gone as well. What the heck could it have been? Was that something in my kidneys or gall bladder? Was it the veggies I ate? Who knows but I shall monitor the situation closely.
In the end, we left Belleville around 11PM because word was that the storm was pretty well past us and Applebee’s was closing up shop. I must admit I was a little disheartened when it seemed that the staff were more focused on leaving for the night instead of making us feel welcome to stay for however long we needed to during this storm. They never actually kicked us out, but they closed up our bill and that was that.
As we headed out from Belleville I did encounter quite a few hot spots of torrential downpours which wasn’t the greatest to drive in during the night, but we managed to make it into Ajax around 12:30AM and relaxed for a bit while revelling in the fact that we managed to emerge unscathed (except for my back pains) from Tornado Watch 2009. We had a good laugh at the fact that our road trips manage to morph into amazing stories.
A note of seriousness here…my thoughts do go out to all those affected by the tornadoes. I have heard horrible stories coming from Vaughan…40 houses needing total demolition…over 200 affected by the storm. Crazy.
I’m heading to Toronto tonight and then I see Pearl Jam tomorrow! This may very well be my favourite concert of the year! Then it’s off to Katie’s cottage on Saturday.
I’m sitting here in Montreal typing away in what I must call a modern snapshot. I’m surrounded by items that may or may not have come from Ikea, but it all works together and it’s pretty darn cool sitting here while watching a swivel HD TV in front of me. Granted, it’s on the Country Music Network and I’m not sure why I haven’t turned it off.
For my birthday, Vero got us tickets to see Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings, otherwise known as the geniuses behind The Guess Who as well as Bachman-Turner Overdrive. I would consider them to be the Canadian equivalent to Lennon-McCartney, Jagger-Richards and Palmer-Palmer.
Our friend Benoit tipped us off to a Bed and Breakfast that he and Cinthia frequent in downtown Montreal. It is called Les Bon Matins and is located directly across from the Bell Center. We called and arranged to stay at a satellite bed and breakfast as they were all booked. Because it was a Wednesday night that we were heading up and they hadn’t booked it already, they gave us the apartment style accommodations for $150! It had a bar, a fridge, a living room, a jacuzzi tub and all the other things you need to have when hitting up Montreal for a night.
We arrived around 7PM in what appeared to be an interesting area of town (Papineau and Rue Ontario) but then discovered that you should never judge a book from its cover. As soon as we walked inside we were amazed by the place. Thanks to Benoit and Cinthia for recommending this place. It definitely beat out a hotel room in downtown Montreal which I’m sure we would get for the same price.
We walked up to Theatre St-Denis and headed in to the sounds of Booker T playing. The usher brought us to Row E which was 10 rows from the stage! It was a great view and the seats were super comfortable. Booker T is not known to either of us but from his comments, he has been around for awhile considering he recorded some songs with Otis Redding back in the sixties. After hearing a few songs from the end of the set, we sat back and waited for the main attraction to hit the stage.
When the show started, they had a montage of video and photos from Bachman-Cummings lives together. They were quite young when they started out! They then hit the stage along with their backing band who were quite entertaining, especially the bass player.
What a show! A little context for you…I don’t own any albums from these prolific songwriters but that’s something I shall rectify. They pulled out all the stops…they started off with some well known tunes like Clap for the Wolfman and You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet. They chatted a lot between songs about their travels together and apart and how they respected each other as songwriters. Burton Cummings played a solo track from his new album and then he left the stage to allow Randy Bachman to play a jazzy number from his new jazz album. They both took the stage again and played all the hits…American Woman, These Eyes, No Sugar Tonight, Let it Ride, Hey You…I’m sure I’ll think of more later on. I really enjoyed the showmanship of Cummings as he would play the piano like he was born to do and then get up and rock a little bit while showing off his skills. Bachman soloed as well as any other guitarist out there and he looked like a rocker with his leather pants and t-shirt. I really enjoyed the intimate feeling of the concert as they chatted about how they wrote some songs (No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature being two separate songs written in the same key and joined together). They encored with Share the Land and Taking Care of Business which got the crowd going. I really enjoyed the crowd tonight. The majority of the show was spent sitting down but Vero and I felt comfortable getting up to rock out for a few choice tracks that we loved.
This was the last show of the tour and we feel privileged to see them. I would definitely check them out in the future although I’m not sure if the setlist would ever change all that much. It was packed with the hits and even though I don’t own an album, there were only 5-6 tunes that I wasn’t familiar with and even if I wasn’t, it didn’t matter. They were professional musicians who played amazing music. I’m happy that Vero surprised me with tickets to this show. I love you!
We then headed back to the room where we enjoyed the pleasures within…namely a bridge with some cold Boreale beer!
So I hit here the morning after thinking about how different my life would be if I lived in downtown Montreal in a place like this. It would be amazing. Oh, there’s Vero. Must run. We’re off to see Philipp for lunch and then bring him to Ottawa. He’s leaving Canada soon and he needs to visit the embassy as the Montreal-German embassy has closed down for some reason.
